Visiting CUW

I left Ram at Holy Hill at his retreat, and I took the Lambs over to CUW to visit for the day on June 16. The Lambs were quite wild after riding in the car to WI. They enjoyed "driving" the golf cart parked outside the entrance to CUW.

I wasn't able to convince Lamb 1 to be in the photo, but here I am in the curriculum section of the CUW library. I prepared many of these books to go on the shelf over 13 years ago. Lamb 2 and 3 cooperated for a photo. We didn't stay in the library long, because they were too noisy and too wild.

I met 2 new Loopers that I had never met before-Deidre and Fay. CUW has a grill outside and we were able to have a nice lunch and chat together. Thanks Fay for arranging this!

I probably shouldn't have walked down the bluff with my newly recovered sprained ankle, but the boys standing here like this "made" me do it. They were begging to walk down.

Lamb 1 thought it was like going to the ocean so he was afraid. I took a photo to prove that he really went all the way to the bottom. Going down the steps would have been faster, but we took the ramps because of my foot and because we had the stroller. Some women were sitting at the top and they were quite impressed that I took all 3 Lambs down to the bottom and back up.

Here the Lambs are back up at the top after our walk. I must say the bluff is beautiful now that it has been restored. Not only will it not erode, but I'm jealous of the students that get to take walks there now!

Lamb 1's godfather

Lamb 1's godfather, Latif Gaba, was made a LCMS deacon at a church service on June 15 at Holy Hill monastery. Lamb 1 wasn't sure about having his photo taken without any other Lambs in the photo.

Lamb 1 with his godparents, Ruth and Latif Gaba.

The group of pastors. Ram is in the back, third from the right.

Traveling

Everyone told me I was crazy to take 3 Lambs on 2 long trips driving, without a DVD player. We survived! The Lambs did better traveling to WI because Ram was with us and there was a goal-to see people they had already met. The trip to CO, we heard several times "I'm done!". They had never been to a wedding before and they had never met the family we went to see. So there wasn't a goal they could understand for all the driving. Lamb 1 reading.
Lamb 2 reading.

Lamb 3 sleeping-what he did most of both trips while we were driving!

Growing Pansies

Our town is having their 130th anniversary celebration the end of July. They asked everyone in town to buy signs to identify their houses. We live in such a small town that street names are not posted everywhere in town and house numbers are not posted everywhere either. We usually don't have a problem because we say we live behind the only church in town, but sometimes Fed Ex has trouble delivering to our house. I was excited to identify our house. This past spring I planted pansies in a wood barrel. This project became more expensive than I expected-barrels, dirt, and the Lambs wanted different flowers so we bought them all. I was surprised when a woman came to visit and she was surprised I was growing pansies and said she had never had luck growing them in this area. But mine have done well even in the drought we had. The Lambs received a few flowers at library storytime etc. so there are a few kinds in these barrels.

We chose to identify our parsonage as well as our family. Many visitors from all over the country will come to our small town for the celebration. This is the "new" parsonage, there is an old parsonage.

The anniversary committee wanted people to put the year they moved to our small town. We chose to put the year we were married as it was just two years before we moved here.

I'm pleased how the project turned out and I hope lots of other people in town also had the signs made. Please ignore the weeds behind the barrels-after our vacations we will have lots of clean up the yard work before all the visitors come to town!

Home Sweet Home

We are home from our second trip this summer. We actually came home a day early this trip because everyone was anxious to get home. I have many photos to post and hopefully I'll get some posted about our last two trips before we go on our next trip!

Another trip

I haven't even blogged about last week's trip and we're off again today. We're going to the Denver area for a wedding on my mom's side of the family. It should be quite an adventure with my parents, me, and the 3 Lambs in our minivan. Our internet was down all day yesterday so I was frustrated about all the last minute things I need to do on the computer. Ram has to stay home and work. We'll miss him. See you next week!

Home

We're home for a few days before our next trip. I'm too tired to blog much. We got home about 11pm last night. We had gone shopping all day. One of the things I bought at Walmart was a refill bottle of liquid hand soap. Somehow the lid came off and there was soap all over our kitchen floor, near where we had dropped everything else off as we unloaded the car. I was only able to save 1/4 of the bottle. We had to put nearly everything away and then wipe up the floor. I lost a few items that we had also bought at Walmart. This makes me so upset because a few months ago we had the same thing happen with dish soap. I have bought dish soap locally after that incident. Now I guess I have to do the same thing with anything liquid!
We had a great trip and hopefully I will have time to blog about this trip before we go on our next trip. If you are interested, you can read this blog post to see about the retreat that Ram attended. Lamb 1 was featured in it.
Unfortunately, my camera didn't work so I don't have any Looper photos. I'm hoping to get a copy of the photo that another Looper took. Only two of us took photos that night so hopefully hers turned out.
We're looking forward to tomorrow, church and then lunch at our favorite nearby restaurant with a Father's Day buffet.

Vacation

We are leaving after Ram is done with church tomorrow for WI for most of the week. At the beginning of the week, Ram will see his friends (along with some mutal friends) and I will see my friends (along with some mutal friends) later in the week.
Today was very busy getting everything packed to go. I was still behind on laundry from when I was on crutches and I couldn't go to the basement easily. The Lambs are too young to help any more than packing some toys for the car. Lamb 1 was exhausted after VBS this week and late bedtimes. He took a nap and he NEVER takes a nap. He was a grouch after the nap. He said, "I don't want to go on a trip where we drive all day only stopping for bathroom, food, and gas breaks! That's no fun! I want to stop and buy a toy." We had a little chat and he isn't happy about the long car ride, but he's excited to have a chance to play with kids his age when we get there. And we may just stop and buy a toy to surprise him too.
Gasp-we don't have a DVD player for the car, nor do we have a laptop! So the poor Lambs will have to read and play with toys in the car instead of watch movies. And I won't be checking e-mail or blogging this week.
See you next week-well at least for a few days before out next vacation...

Week in Review

Sunday night, Ram was called to the home of a member that died. Today he had the funeral for him. This was the youngest member (age 36) that Ram has buried. He was busy all week with funeral preparations.
This week we had VBS. We took a break last night and tonight went much better.
One of my dad's closest friends died and the funeral is tomorrow.
A college friend had a miscarriage this week.
Ram was gone all day Wednesday to visit a member in the hospital in the Twin Cities. He was able to go shopping at Costco on the way home. We love Costco!
Everyone besides Lamb 3 had a hair cut or at least trimmed on Tuesday. The Lambs love going to get their hair cut and then they get to play with her children. She has a salon in her home. They are LCMS and homeschool.
I hung clothes on the line yesterday and Lamb 1 was fascinated with this. He noticed when the neighbor hung clothes on her line. He noticed when a yard had posts, but no clothes line.
We planted a few more flowers yesterday.
We went to the bank for free ice cream today (National Dairy Week). The Lambs got compliments on how well behaved they were as they ate their ice cream. Why would children misbehave while they were eating ice cream?
We will be very busy tomorrow finishing up laundry, dishes, etc. and packing for our trip to WI. Ram has to finish his sermon too.

VBS

None of our churches in our tri-parish have VBS. Ram has had a very busy week so he only helped with VBS the first night at an LCMS church 15 miles away. This church is where most of our members go to VBS. I chose to take the Lambs to a LCMS church 7 miles away this year. They are doing the CPH GADGET program this year. I knew I was in trouble when we walked into church and Lamb 1 was afraid of the inflatable robot. I'm still hobbling around on my sore foot (although I am wearing tennis shoes now and no crutches any more). Lamb 3 just wants to run and not stay any where. He screams when you don't let him run. I asked for Lamb 1 and 2 to be in the same class. Lamb 2 cried a little the first night, cried more the second night, and refused to go to any activity with his class the third night. Picture me hobbling around, trying to chase Lamb 3, trying to calm Lamb 1 down from being afraid of everything new, and trying to convince Lamb 2 to attend class without crying. By the third night, I told Lamb 2 he could either go to class or sit on a chair, but he wasn't allowed to play in the nursery with Lamb 3. He chose to sit on a chair. He sat very nicely until I realized he had found a pencil and colored the wall.
I only expected them to attend the story time without me and figured it would be fine to take Lamb 3 with me to snacks, art, music, and games. The snacks are tied into the program and they are cute, but not much food for my boys. So they either eat them fast and then want to run around without anything to do, or they are the only ones that actually eat the snacks so they take forever to eat them. They complain they are hungry the rest of the night too. They do ok at art, but the projects are too hard for them and they need lots of help. I try to help both of them while I'm holding Lamb 3. Lamb 2 ate some colored sand during art on the third night. The music is way too hard for them, I wish they would have simple refrains from hymns. So they keep getting out of their seats and running around and don't sing during music. I spend the entire music time chasing one of them and trying to get them to participate. And out of 3 nights of games, they only enjoyed and participated one night. The other two nights, they ran around the basement but didn't participate. We try to get the Lambs to bed at 8pm and we don't even get home from VBS until 9pm and then we have to do the bedtime routine.
Ram had a funeral visitation tonight after a very long day yesterday driving to the Twin Cities (4 hours one way) visiting someone in the hospital. I was worn out from being a single parent yesterday and their bad behavior at VBS. So we decided to skip VBS tonight. Lamb 1 complained for a little bit this afternoon, but never spoke of it again tonight. Lamb 2 didn't say anything. We'll try again tomorrow night as it is the last night.
I think Lamb 2 is too young for VBS. Lamb 1 would have a fit if he had to go without Lamb 2. Hopefully next year will go better.

Wordless Wednesday

Did you know

that baby wash containers are not childproof at all? Lamb 3 "helped" by pouring baby wash all over his pajamas and the carpet. We started using Arbonne baby wash from Ram's Aunt Lois, but I still had some bottles of another kind in the cupboard. We have safety latches on the cupboards, but this one won't stay closed. Lamb 3 enjoyed taking the bottles in and out of the cupboard. I'm just thankful that he didn't get into the Arbonne!

Did you know...

bullfrog tadpoles take up to two years to change into frogs? Other tadpoles take between 2 weeks and 2 years to change into frogs.

Lamb 1 has been asking lots of questions about animals. For his birthday and for Lamb 2 and 3's birthday, they received lots of books about animals from Ram's mom. I am learning a lot reading these "easy readers". I am always amazed at God's creation and what he created. I thought all tadpoles took about 2 weeks to change into frogs. I thought this after watching the tadpoles in the preschool classroom at the school I taught at. I'm amazed they can survive predators over 2 years.

Last night we read a book about nocturnal animals and Lamb 1 asked a lot of good questions. He was fascinated with the owl pellets (aren't all boys?). Thankfully I could answer all his questions last night. With my sore foot, I'm not really up to helping him research.

Sometimes the small deeds add up to mean a lot

The night that we heard our church member died and Ram would have the funeral tomorrow, I laid in bed thinking about him. When I was pregnant with Lamb 1, he gave us a ham for Christmas and wrote the nicest note with it. He told me to take care of myself because I was growing his pastor's child in my womb and he was keeping the baby and me in his prayers.
The tri-parish had a baby shower for Lamb 1 when he was a few weeks old. This man came to the baby shower. At first I think he was a little embarrassed as he was the only man there besides Ram. Then I think he really enjoyed it-the meal they served and the fellowship with the women.
Then after Lamb 1 was a few years old, he heard that Lamb 1 liked pickles. So very often he gave us homemade pickles. Last fall his children made him give up driving at age 88. One of the last trips he made was to our house to deliver pickles to us. After that when Ram visited him he gave us more pickles.
The Lambs never became close to him like an adopted grandpa or even as close as they have become to some of our other church members. But I think this man had it right-treating the pastor's family with respect and doing what he could do for us in small ways.

ok news about my foot

I fell and hurt my foot on May 24. I finally went to the doctor on May 28. The doctor gave me a special shoe to wear and crutches. She took x-rays and it wasn't broken.
I was starting to feel a little better on June 1 when the nurse called and said the official reader of the x-ray was a little concerned about the area of the injury because it had "low bone density". The doctor decided to consult with the orthopedic doctor on June 3 and said they would call me back. When I didn't hear from the doctor yesterday, I called and asked but they had no news. I was worried between June 1 and today's phone call. The nurse had told me to not walk on it until they talked to the orthopedic doctor. Do you know how hard that is to do with a 1, 3, and 5 year old? And a 1 year old that doesn't know how to go down stairs? Plus I was worried that the orthopedic doctor would recommend a cast or surgery.
The nurse finally called this afternoon and said the orthopedic doctor had recommended to just keep doing what my doctor had recommended on May 28. So I asked the nurse if I was allowed to walk on it a little with my special shoe (without crutches). She said yes, to start with a little and increase. My foot still hurts, and it would be almost impossible to put weight on it without my special shoe, but life will be much easier now that I am at this point.
This has scared me and I'm taking my vitamins regularly again and we're eating more homemade yogurt and other dairy too. I'm not walking on it too much because I want it to be in good shape when we go to WI the middle of June. Please pray that it heals by then. Please also pray that the Lambs are patient with me until my foot heals completely.

#37

Ram has been here as pastor of the tri-parish for 6 years and 9 days. Yesterday the 37th member died that he will do that funeral. There is another member that is very ill too so we expect the 38th soon.
I'll be honest, as pastor's wife, I hate funerals because it messes up the entire week, by the time Ram goes to the deathbed, meets with the family, lines up everything with everyone involved (funeral home, secretary, organist, ladies serving lunch, etc.), and does the funeral. But I also know that Ram has wonderful funeral sermons and he is a great comfort to the family that lost a loved one.
We have a friend that is a pastor a few hours north of us that has a dual parish, has been there about one more year than Ram has been here, and he has done about 80 funerals. 37 doesn't sound so bad then!
Another reason why we want to homeschool is because of Ram's schedule as pastor and unpredictable parts of his schedule like funerals. If the Lambs were in school and a funeral messed up the whole week, they would feel like they never saw Ram. And often after a few funerals, we take a day away as a family to go shopping or spend time together. If the Lambs were in school, we wouldn't be able to do this. I'm looking forward to beginning with Lamb 1 in kindergarten in the fall and working our school schedule around Ram's schedule.

Wordless Wednesday

In memory of...

Walking

Last night, Lamb 3 was playing with the step stool from the bathroom. He would pick it up and move it and stand on it (carefully balancing if it wasn't near a wall) and then move it and do it again. He loved this "game". Then he took the step stool down the hall and stood on it in the kitchen. I asked him to take the step stool back to the bathroom and he did so cheerfully. I can't believe that at this point Lamb 2 wasn't even walking yet. Lamb 3 is not only walking, but carrying a step stool (sometimes carrying the step stool with one hand)!
Lamb 1 walked at 13 months. Lamb 2 walked at 14 months. Lamb 3 walked at 11 months. Lamb 3 will be 14 months on Tuesday.